Black Archive

Desolation of the Black Terror (OSR) This hexcrawl covers 16 pages (not counting the front and back cover and their insides), with about ½ a page devoted to editorial and explaining how everything ties together, leaving us with 15.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look! So, I am, in spite of sometimes having issues with parts of his work, someone who enjoys the type of material Geoffrey McKinney brings to the table. As such, I have already covered his self-published, first 4 Carcosa hexcrawls…and when they left me wanting more, I figured I could check out his Wilderness Hexcrawl-series as well. First things first, in case you’re not familiar with these: As per the writing of […]

Everyman Minis: Black Blade Options This Everyman Mini clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 5 pages of SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look! So, what do the options herein do? Basically, we get archetypes that modify the black blade (a deservedly popular choice) gained by e.g. the bladebound magus archetype. Since they are archetypes, they must be taken as whole packages – analogue to regular archetypes, there’ll be no cherry-picking here. Okay, so, before we take a look at the archetypes in question, it should be noted that the pdf also sports two new magus arcana: Black Blade Endowment lets the magus […]

Veranthea Codex: The Black Knight 2.0 The second version of this module clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let’s take a look! It should be noted that 6 level 1 pregens, making use of the unique Veranthea rules for races and characters, are included in the deal…and they are all pretty strong, which is probably a good thing, considering what awaits the PCs herein. This pdf is intended as an introduction to the continent of Grethadnis in Veranthea and can be used as the first module, which, in combination with Spring of Disorder and Grualroth’s Rot, to […]

Village Backdrop: Black Wyvern (system neutral) This installment of RSP’s Village Backdrop-series is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look at the settlement! So, Black Wyvern would be the final village in the vicinity of the town backdrop Deksport, situated on the relatively lawless Picaroon Peninsula. And guess what? It was founded by a pirate captain and named after his ship. Did not see that one coming, right? Sarcasm aside, the village actually does have a somewhat unique angle: The base premise of the village would be evil colonialist pirates displacing similarly […]

Village Backdrop: Black Wyvern (5e) This installment of RSP’s Village Backdrop-series is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look at the settlement! So, Black Wyvern would be the final village in the vicinity of the town backdrop Deksport, situated on the relatively lawless Picaroon Peninsula. And guess what? It was founded by a pirate captain and named after his ship. Did not see that one coming, right? Sarcasm aside, the village actually does have a somewhat unique angle: The base premise of the village would be evil colonialist pirates displacing similarly evil […]

Village Backdrop: Black Wyvern This installment of RSP’s Village Backdrop-series is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look at the settlement! So, Black Wyvern would be the final village in the vicinity of the town backdrop Deksport, situated on the relatively lawless Picaroon Peninsula. And guess what? It was founded by a pirate captain and named after his ship. Did not see that one coming, right? Sarcasm aside, the village actually does have a somewhat unique angle: The base premise of the village would be evil colonialist pirates displacing similarly evil local […]

Night’s Black Agents (GUMSHOE) Night’s Black Agents, as a hardcover, is a massive 232 page-book, with 2 pages of editorial, 3 pages of ToC, which leaves us with 227 pages of content – so let’s take a look! Wait for a second – before we do: Yes, this means I’m branching out into GUMSHOE, at least occasionally. Why? Well, I actually got Night’s Black Agents as a present from a friend of mine (thanks, Paco!) and had been playing with it for quite some time. Before I get into the nit and grit, let’s start with a brief discussion of GUMSHOE, the engine of this RPG. The system you’re probably most likely to know the engine from would […]

Genius Adventures: The Black Skull Laughs This genius adventure clocks in at 21 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 17 pages of content, so let’s take a look! This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. … .. . All right, still here? This is, layout-wise – the most boring dungeon imaginable -10 identically-sized rooms connected by 30-ft-corridors. That’s it. And yes, this is by design. The complex herein depicts a minor dwarven way station turned doom-laden crypt, recently disturbed, as per the tradition by bandits – who unleashed the so-called Black Skull. Now to clear this place and claim its […]

Gossamer Worlds: The Black (Diceless) This installment of the evocative Gossamer Worlds-series clocks in at 12 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let’s take a look! So what is The Black? The Black is a vast universe of thousands of high-scifi empires, galaxies-spanning confederations and empires, a realm where terra-forming and faster-than-light-travel are a dime a dozen among the civilized races; A realm where a powerful, immortal space-pharaoh has fleets of black pyramid-shaped ships at his beck and call, each of which can blast whole planets asunder. It is a realm where lobster-like xenobiologists and Nietzeschean centaur-like species abound, where a viral/fungoid psychic infection may depopulate whole planets. […]

Lucien’s Guide to the Black Files If you read this review, one of the following is true: 1. You’re me. Hello, handsome devil! 2. I have shared this information with you – don’t screw this up! 3.You have stolen this homepage – I have been notified of your identity and location. 4. You have killed me. Good for you, but you have eliminated the ward that left a whole bunch of nastiness in check. 5. I have died and you took up my mantle – good for you, but I hope I’ve had the chance to provide the keys, because I wasn’t joking in 4. … This intro mirrors (in less vivid prose) how this guide begins – to […]

CE 2 -The Black Goat This mini-module is 12 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let’s take a look, shall we? This being a review of a mini-module, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. All right, still here? The Pass of the Black Goat is home to two weird types of humanoids – the fox-like Pellas Troth and the elephant-eared Mahmat Troth – which are mortal enemies, though they both worship the same concept, Silence, under the auspice of the mysterious, sphinx-like and utterly silent black goat. Attuned to silence, the Mahmat Troth can hear those approaching from a mile […]

The gentleman I spoke with on the phone called this the “techiest” fan that Honeywell makes, and he was right, well kind of. When this arrived on my porch I immediately wondered how much assembly would be required. I’m not a big fan of “buy this, then you get to build it!” I would rather if I pay full price for something that it come pre-assembled, but obviously for shipping reasons this wouldn’t be very prudent as things get broken in transit. We pulled all the bits out and began to assemble the fan without reading the instructions, because what man reads instructions? It took a little longer to assemble than I would have liked, but after a couple attempted […]